Day 6

The 8 am game was a bust. They stopped it early because the league has a rule ending any game once the difference between the scores is 10 or higher. Yeah, it was that bad. Twelve to 1. The boys were understandably disappointed but the coaches were justifiably frustrated -- they just weren't "on" today. Careless mistakes, not paying attention, and the worst one (which in my opinion the coaches encouraged somewhat this year) -- acting cocky. Rob told me one kid got tagged out because as he was running to 1st the other team missed a catch and had to retrieve the ball. He started walking. Apparently he was shocked when the ball arrived at first before he did.

Evan, Spence and I took care of Pippa's walk and the paper route this morning before meeting up with Rob at the game, then we all headed off to a lovely sail in Lake City with Chris on the Chinook. It looked like there was plenty of interest in the sailing and I hope they raise lots of $$. Last year's total, according to the local paper, was about $10,000. Not bad for a couple of days of sailing.

Now we're home, working on some cleaning and straightening up inside and out. Garrett's next game is at 6, and if the win that one we play once more, tomorrow at 10. If they lose today, they are done.

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For those of you who remember the drama of Uncle Henry from last summer and fall, I will be making a trip next weekend to take pictures of his grave for my grandma. The headstone we ordered from the VA arrived and has been set and I want to make sure all is well before winter sets in.

Uncle Henry ....

has left the building. It is not a small feat to mail human remains through the US Postal Service, but it was accomplished today. He is on his way. But I don't think the 3 Postal Workers I encountered while trying to mail him will ever be the same.

Whew

We seem to have made it through the icky fever thing that Evan and Spencer had. Of course I got it too and it manifested itself as a killer headache but it seems okay now.

Rob will be home shortly to discover that I have cleaned his "work room." Honestly, my scrap room (aka crap room) doesn't deserve the crap name after all. My husband saves *everything*. He has tiny pieces of wood scraps that are good for nothing, tons of miscellaneous sized pieces of scrap wood, and lots of them are next to the furnace. Ummmm, honey? You won't let me have an electric blanket because of the fire hazard but you will store wood and turpentine next to the furnace? Seriously, I am going to buy an electric blanket and you are gonna shut the hell up about it.

I vacuumed his room, moved stuff around, cleaned some things out (to be fair, some of the stuff was mine), and mopped the floor. There was sawdust all over, so that is gone, and he can now access his tools, including the compound miter saw and the new band saw. I also got the vacuum hose into the cabinet the laundry chute drops into and cleared out the dust and dirt from there. We will be finishing the crown molding in the living/dining room this week before Wednesday. Of course now I want crown molding in my bedroom, too. LOL

I now have 4 coats of magnetic paint on the back of my scrap shelf, with another 2 to go before it is "sticky" enough, and I have a coat of paint drying on the interior side of the back door. It was just plain primer ivory but I wanted paint on it and it looks so nice now.

This week I will get Uncle Henry in the mail, along with some family history files that the cemetery will place in the records for me, and I will mail the request for his free headstone to the Veterans' Administration. My sweet grandma sent me money to cover my mailing expenses for Henry and the phone calls I've made ... and some money for some archival products for storing some of my large family photos. PLUS she included money "just because." I am stashing it so I can buy a Silhouette or a Wishblade.

And as a happy little side note, 60 Minutes on CBS features an interview with Bruce Springsteen tomorrow night at 7 PM Eastern and Pacific, 6 PM Central time.

Spencer's mini-session

He had an hour and a half in the classroom today. It went great. He was perfectly happy and I couldn't be sad because he was so excited. This kid has been in classrooms since he was 2. He has waited SO long to be in kindergarten. How can I be sad?

Of course, all bets are off tomorrow. I have to put him on the bus.

I did realize today that my first child went to kindergarten about a week after turning 5. This kid is the age his brother was at the END of the school year. He is so ready. *Sigh.*

In other news, I tamed the paper beast in my house today. I took 4 paper grocery sacks full of seriously compacted shredded paper in them outside for the recyclers today. It feels so good. Tomorrow the genealogy material from our trip that is threatening to take over the world (or at least my scrap room) and maybe getting all the paperwork together to mail to my grandma so we can finally put this Henry thing to rest. (Again with the jokes. Sorry. Honestly, I just really think it's funny ....)

Labor day weekend

The house is clean enough; company will arrive in a few hours and the rest of the family who lives nearby will descend upon our home to eat soft-shelled chicken tacos with all the fix'ns. I have purchased disposable plates and cups so I won't have to do dishes but the guilt of that crap taking up space in a landfill could kill me, too. Oh well.

My "crap room" is pretty good, too -- the floor is mostly cleared of the boxes and bins of my great Uncle Henry's life. Now it is all shoved in the closet and with a little luck this winter I can organize, label, file, and toss. I will make sure I have people here when I open the closet, though, because it is entirely probable the contents will spill out and crush me.

I am contemplating a few home improvement projects -- from a small painting task to removing tile and replacing it with vinyl to a larger painting project to (finally!) living and dining room window treatments. I just have to be sure that whatever I take on I can do alone since Rob is stunned by the amount of homework involved in this Executive MBA thing. LOL

Some big genealogy stuff in the works, too -- paperwork to send off to people, Uncle Henry to ship to Wisconsin (I know it's horrible but I still am very amused by this. Currently he is in the gardening cabinet in the garage next to the fertilizers. Ha ha), and a substantial application for a genealogy group that will require quite a bit of documentation that must be obtained and sent off by Sept. 15.

So what am I going to do when I log off? Get some thank you notes addressed and stamped, put my leg up, and let my husband do all the chopping and food prep for dinner tonight.

Have a great labor Day weekend, all, and don't work too hard.

Treasures and housecleaning

These were in the box my grandma sent yesterday. Amazing, huh? The first is my great-grandfather Walter. He was born in February 1884. The second is my grandma Sally at age 2 in 1925. The third is her mother, Edith at about age 16 (1899), the last is Walter again (Edith's husband, my great-grandfather), around 1920 in the workshop of his granite monument company. Awesome.

The boys and I are trying frantically to get the house in order before my dad arrives this evening. We are always thrilled to have him but with the camping lately the housework has suffered. And since we haven't got much of a system down for packing/unpacking/storage, the house was full of huge Rubbermaid containers of camping food and there is still a cooler of drinks in my kitchen. We are getting there, though, and Dad is bringing the Porta-Potti down for the camper as well as some awesome nesting mixing bowls and dishes (place settings for 6) so I will have plenty of dishes to feed 12. Very cool.

The A/C guy is coming this afternoon for the annual check-up and I am going to try to get an estimate to have a tree pulled from the back yard, a hair appointment, a nail appointment, and something fixed for dinner since Evan has baseball at 5:30.

Oh -- and it appears I have the ashes thing under control. The crematorium in Arizona faxed a Transit authorization to Rob at work. I can UPS the cremains and the paperwork to the cemetery in Wisconsin. They will take care of placing him in the family plot and my grandma will cover the bill. Grandma will sign the form requesting a free marker from the government (he is eligible because he was a WWII veteran) and pay the $60 fee for setting the marker when it comes in. Much less of a hassle than I anticipated.

JACKPOT!

My grandma sent me a huge box of family memorabilia -- photos, papers, newspaper clippings -- all from her brother, who died about a year and a half ago. This is a wonderful thing, and I was so excited about the stuff I discovered in there.

However, it turns out that she (unknowingly) sent her brother's cremains, too.

Yep, good ol' Uncle Henry is in the garage right now, waiting until I can take him to Wisconsin to the family cemetery plot.

My grandma was horrified. I have to be honest, though, I just laughed. Hysterically. It really IS funny.

Or maybe it's just me.